Constant strides are being made in minimizing the volume for storing energy. Efforts in this direction are particularly applicable to power supplies of delivering energy to electronic devices, particularly computers and related components. In one such power supply, pulsating current is supplied to the load via a low pass filter, to remove ripple and other deleterious components. Such a filter includes many capacitors, between a pair of opposite polarity DC bus bars. It is desirable to minimize the volume required for these filter capacitors which store a considerable portion of the energy supplied to the load.
It is also desirable to arrange the capacitors so they are connected to the bus bars in a very facile, automated manner, such as through the use of a wave-solder process. It is also desirable for heat to be removed easily from the assemblage of capacitors.
To assist in minimizing ripple and other high frequency components, it is common practice for opposite polarity electrodes of main energy storing filter capacitors to be shunted by other filter capacitors having a much smaller volume and a much smaller capacitive value than the main capacitors. However, in the past inclusion o the filter capacitors in a high power, high energy capacitor assembly has created certain problems, particularly with regard to volumetric requirements.
It is, accordingly, an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved assembly of impedance elements having improved volumetric density power characteristics.
Another object of the invention is to provide a new and improved assembly of capacitors, wherein the capacitors are connected to a pair of opposite polarity bus bars in a relatively small volume, while providing high output power to a load.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved array of main capacitors capable of storing substantial amounts of energy and supplying the stored energy to a load, in combination with ripple removing capacitors having a much smaller volume than the main capacitors, wherein the ripple suppressing capacitors are easily connected in circuit with the main capacitors and are arranged so they do not substantially increase the array volume.
An additional object of the invention is to provide a new and improved assembly of high energy storing capacitors that are connected across a pair of DC bus bars and are arranged in a minimum volume, that is designed to promote cooling of the capacitors.